Episodes

This week's CultCast...

Revamped iPads coming this spring; Apple lays the groundwork for the next era of personal technology; how smart homes get hacked; Google’s Pixel phone vs. iPhone 7; and we reveal our favorite new iOS and Mac apps!

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We also want to give Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com a thanks for the great music you hear on today’s show.

On the show this week:

Southwest Airlines was forced to evacuate a flight from Louisville to Baltimore this morning before it hit the runway, thanks to a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone that caught fire.

The owner of the Galaxy Note 7 said he got the new phone on September 21st at an AT&T store. Before the flight left the gate, the owner says he powered it down and put it in his pocket when it started smoking.

Thick grey-green smoke poured out of the device after the owner dropped it on the floor. In a matter of moments it had burned through the plane’s carpet.

“All passengers and crew exited the plane via the main cabin door and no injuries were reported,”

During an event in San Francisco today, Google unveiled a new Wi-Fi router, an improved Chromecast with 4K support, and a new Google Home device that’s a lot like Amazon’s Echo smart speaker, only it’s powered by Google Assistant.

Google Home allows owners to use voice commands to do stuff like play music on YouTube, Google Play Music or Spotify. You can also ask Google Home to play podcasts or news feeds.

Apple is set to debut a trifecta of new iPad Pro models in Q1 2017, according to a new report

Mac Okatara suggests that the 12.9-inch and 7.9-inch iPad Pros will get the same 12MP iSight camera and True Tone technology that the 9.7-inch iPad Pro currently has. All three models will also supposedly receive quad microphones and, in something of a pleasant surprise, 3.5mm headphone jacks.

If Apple’s yearly product cycle wasn’t enough of a hint that a new iPad was on the way, Apple’s iPad Pro tablets both received discounts of up to $100 after Apple’s iPhone 7 media event last month. This announcement coincided with a storage upgrade for other iPad models.